


The Clusters of Stars

by Gerbilfriend



Series: stars in the sky [2]
Category: Earth Girl Trilogy - Janet Edwards
Genre: Found Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:55:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25235803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gerbilfriend/pseuds/Gerbilfriend
Summary: Family is family, and Jarra's family is larger then blood
Relationships: Jarra Tell Morrath & Candace
Series: stars in the sky [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828198
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	1. 3 things Candace never told Jarra (and one thing she did)

Cadace never told Jarra how long it took for Jarra to be officially hers. Her first two pro children had been quick, barely an hour after she had gotten the initial notification that she was about to have another pro child the finalization had come.

It had been quick. Simple.

Fast. Candace knew what that meant from the parents side. She knew that meant that the parents had disowned the kid quickly and just wanted to get through the awkward phase of their life.

Jarra hadn’t been like that. 

Technically, parents had twenty four hours to sign over custody of their child if they wished too, and if they did not, to start planning to move to Earth.

Jarra had been in limbo for forty two hours before she was in Candace’s arms. With a name. Cadace had named her other two pro children, had looked at this list and tried to figure out what name sounded right for them, had talked to their proDads’ to see what they said about names.

About choosing a name that the baby would suit.

What name would they like to have in ten years? Twenty years?

“Jarra”, the Hospital Earth counselor said, “her name is Jarra. You can pick the last one”.

Something about the counselor seemed faintly exhausted. 

“She already has a”, Cadence started to ask, trailing off at the expression on the counselors face.

“Her birth parents want to keep her, but they won’t come to Earth. She is an honor child, and Jarra is an old enough name so the board ruled to let her keep it”.

Candace was more focused on the first part of the sentence, “they won’t come but they still want to keep her. How?”.

“They keep trying to get other family members to show up, like someone else would just come to Earth for a handicapped baby”, the counselor added. Cadence knew she wasn’t supposed to know that, that this whole conversation probably wasn’t supposed to happen.

She still saved the knowledge. 

She could have told Jarra when she turned fourteen, Candace knew, she could have told Jarra that her birth family had tried, tried longer than the birth parents of any of her other children.

That her name wasn’t really one the list and was actually something her birth parents had given her.

She didn't. Even if they had hesitated they had still handed Jarra over.

Candace knew how painful almost could be. 

Jarra would not be subjected to that.

XXX

She had wanted to say no.

She still wanted to say no. She still wanted to walk in and tell Jarra that she couldn’t go anymore. That it wasn’t safe and that she needed to stop.

_It wouldn’t work._

Candace had her suspicions about Jarra’s ProDad. About how their relationship functioned, or didn’t. That if she said no then Jarra would find another way, and at least this way Candace could help mitigate the chaos.

That was something at least.

More than that, more than that, Candace knew Jarra. Knew how hard it was for Jarra sometimes.

Archaeology made her happy. Made her happy in a way few other things did. Made Jarra light up in a way that few other things did.

Candace couldn’t take that away from her, no matter how scared that idea of a worse accident happening to Jarra made her. 

She couldn’t.

She couldn’t tell Jarra how scared she was.

XXX

Jarra dropped the bomb on her and Candace tried not to reel. 

Tried to catch her balance as she thought about Jarra’s plan. The pure audaciousness of it. _An off world university._

Her logic made sense. Candace just needed time to process, but not while Jarra was around. Because Jarra was right, right that she should technically be able to do this.

It was not a good plan.

Candace knew that. 

She knew that it would end badly. That Jarra would have to leave in the middle of the year and rejoin an Earth university and if she had learned anything from Jarra’s explanations over the years then she had learned how important the key spots were.

Spots that would be taken.

_Jarra will do this whether I support her or not._

Candace knew that already. She knew Jarra, knew that wild, force determination. She had seen it before, so many times.

This was not a good plan. Candace knew that down to her bones. This was the type of plan that belonged in cheap holo novels and the low budget films her daughter liked to watch.

It didn’t belong in real life.

It wasn’t going to stop Jarra from doing it.

_Maybe it will help her,_ Candace hoped as she watched Jarra head back towards the portal, still sitting in the rainforest.

_Maybe this will._

Jarra had always been so twisted up, so broken up and Candace understood. She understood the crushing feeling of being in a cage of your own body. The trapped, itchy sensation.

The darkness that dragged people under.

Jarra was angry, she used it to stop herself from drowning. Candace didn’t know what would happen when she ran out.

This was not a good idea.

Candace did not have a single good idea as to how to stop it. Jarra was going to go into a class of Norm students.

Whatever happened would happen. There was nothing else that Candace could do, all she could do was be there to pick up the pieces.

There was no point in telling Jarra how bad this would go.

None at all.

XXX

Jarra called her, panic clear across her face and babbling about Earth Registry. Candace knows what Jarra wants Candace to tell her.

Jarra wants Candace to tell her that she will make everything okay. That there are calls that Candace can make that will fix this and put it back to the way it was.

She knows what Jarra wanted her to say.

Except she can’t.

There is something much more important that she needs to tell Jarra. Once she starts to talk she can’t stop.

She tells Jarra about her children. She knew she shouldn’t, that there were confidentiality rules put in place to protect pro parents and pro children and this was breaching all of them.

She needs Jarra to understand.

Needs Jarra to know. So often there isn’t a point in saying anything, so often people don’t listen.

People have been ignoring Candace her entire life.

Now. Right now people are listening.

So Candace tells Jarra. Tells her about how every day that comes is another day closer to when she loses her kids. How her life has been ruled by the numbers, rules by the odds.

This time she told Jarra her truth, and as she hung up Candace hoped it would be enough for the both of them.

She really did.

  
  



	2. Playdon 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Had this for awhile, just figured out how to end it

Sometimes Dannel felt like he had ended up as assistant for teaching his own class. It was probably his fault, if he hadn’t asked Jarra to do so many of the day one explanations, in his defense a handicapped student coming into his class and lying about it was an interruption, then maybe she wouldn't have gotten the impression she was another teacher.

It was rather hard to quiz his other students when Jarra always seemed to have the answer. 

Not too mention during the Cassandra 2 rescue when she had blatantly vetoed his suggestions. 

She had been right, her training as Tag Leader for exceeding her training on sensors.

She had still taken control of the class.

Rono was having way too much fun teasing him about it.

Really, it wasn’t like he had a leg to stand on, considering who exactly Jarra had been digging out.

He winced at that thought. It had been too close for that.

Still.

He listened as Jarra outlined the next three points in his lecture as a response to his question about the fall of the stock market in the United States of America during the twentieth century and wondered if he would ever get control of his class back.


End file.
